Dusk to Dawn
by o Mischief Managed
Summary: Series of one-shots set during and after my Darkness Falls duology. Want to see Reyna's battle with Nyx? What about the Parker brothers meeting Aphrodite? Or the real "most important thing" Percy could ever ask Annabeth to do? Requests are in and the ayes have it—guess this ride ain't over just yet.
1. Locked Swords

**Hey, gang! You just never see the last of me, do you? Heh heh heh. After Darkness Falls ended, I got a few people asking if I would consider writing a little more, such as events I didn't show throughout the series or things people wanted to see after the ending. So I decided, what they heck? Why not?**

**So, as the summary says, this is going to be a one-shot series that exists within the canon of my Darkness Falls duology, which includes Blood and Sand and The War of Shadows. That being said, you MUST have read BOTH of those books if any of this is to make sense. These one-shots will be disjointed, some short and some long, and really be more enjoyable to fans of the series.**

**Side-note, I didn't actually edit this at all. Whipped it up today because it's one of the things I've been most wanting to write.**

**Enjoy!**

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><p><em><strong>-Death Valley, 30 July 2011-<br>**__**-Nyx's Midnight Palace-**_

"You okay?" Reyna asked reflexively as she divided her attention into two equal parts among the tribe of undead warriors throwing themselves at the Queen of Night across the hall and the person she was currently dragging to his feet.

"Yeah," Leo Valdez replied in a rough voice. "This is new, though." He poked at his shirt, which was peppered with burned holes, and winced noticeably.

Beside them, Nico di Angelo frowned in alarm. "I thought you were immune to fire."

Leo shrugged. "Apparently not all fire."

"Look, we can't waste time here," Reyna snapped. It wasn't as though she was unconcerned—on the contrary, to her slight annoyance she couldn't keep from remembering her earlier chat with Leo about his anxiety over Nyx's strange black fire, and the look on his face when she'd first summoned it moments ago had almost been enough to make Reyna change her mind about the mission. She knew well how difficult it was to be confronted with your worst fear—she'd been forced to face hers when New Rome had begun to sink into the sand six weeks ago on this very spot. And coming back brought it on again, like a cold dagger being thrust into a wound in her stomach that had barely started to heal. But she refused to dwell on it because, like Leo had said, feeling guilty and acting out of a desire for revenge would probably only lead to disaster. They all needed to stay focused, or they'd never accomplish what they'd come to do.

Not that thinking about that idiot at all did any favors for Reyna's 'focus', his advice notwithstanding. The slight tingle in her fingers from where she'd grabbed his arm seconds ago was evidence enough of that. Just another distraction she really didn't need at the moment.

Reyna shook her head. Back to the matter at hand. "We need to find Hypnos—"

"He's close," Nico told them. "Below us, I think. All we need is… There." His eyes darkened as he nodded to a single black door against the right wall of the hall, presumably leading down.

"Good," Reyna said with a curt inclination of her head. Time for action. "You guys go free Hypnos. I'll keep Nyx busy."

Predictably, both boys rounded on her at once. "You're kidding, right?" Leo said flatly. "There's no way we're leaving you alone to fight a goddess."

Reyna rolled her eyes, not in the mood for an argument. "Somebody has to."

Leo narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Is this about New Rome? Because I told you, you can't—"

"No, it's not about that," Reyna promised in a tone of mild exasperation. And she wasn't lying. She'd always had a knack for tactical strategy, no doubt thanks to her godly parentage, and she knew that such a course of action would buy them the maximum amount of time possible. "This is the only way, and you know it. I know you'd do the same thing."

Leo gave her an odd look and she knew that, like her, he was remembering their talk about sacrifice in Orion's lodge before the war began. She used to think it was pointless to place yourself in danger for someone else's sake.

_Ironic,_ she thought with a mirthless inward smile.

"Well, whatever we decide," Nico broke in, "it's gotta be fast."

"Alright, fine," Leo conceded with a scowl, looking frustrated. "We'll find Hypnos and come back for you. Just be smart, okay?"

Smart? "Who do you think you're talking to?"

The tension in the air was almost starting to recede, until Nico said warningly, "We should go," and Leo's dark eyes seemed to flash anxiously as he met Reyna's gaze. Feeling a swooping sort of jolt in her chest, Reyna started reflexively to lift a hand to reach toward him reassuringly (though whether to reassure him or herself, she couldn't be sure), before she caught herself and quickly curled her fingers into a fist. The catch wasn't quite quick enough, though—a pained sort of understanding sparked across Leo's face. He knew exactly what she'd almost just done.

There was a split second during which Reyna tried to think of an apt explanation, but any possible words were ripped from her vocal cord when Leo suddenly pulled her into him with a surprising amount of force and caught her mouth with his own, effectively clearing almost every thought from her mind. She could have pulled away from him—probably _should_ have, considering their urgent circumstances. But with all of that momentarily wiped from her consciousness, she realized she didn't want to. She _liked_ the feeling that ballooned in her chest and stomach as the heat from his hands and lips warmed her body without burning it. It was completely mad, but she didn't want it to stop. She wanted it to go on forever.

But way too soon it ended as Leo pulled slowly away, leaving Reyna to stare in stunned silence at something even she couldn't really see. She was breathing much too fast—they both were—for only a few seconds of oxygen deficiency.

"Uh… guys?" Nico said awkwardly, breaking some of the electric tension in the air. "I wasn't kidding. We should, uh… really go."

Reyna's mind had begun racing so swiftly that she almost didn't hear when Leo said in a gravelly voice, "Don't die." She blinked and regained her focus, just now realizing that his arm was no longer around her waist.

"You either," she replied. It seemed a bit of stupid response, but at the moment it conveyed her thoughts almost perfectly. She watched in silence for a few heartbeats as Nico sighed impatiently and proceeded to drag Leo toward the far door, before taking a deep breath and forcibly averting her gaze from the two of them in an effort to regain her calm.

As she picked up her sword, Reyna thought vaguely of the night at the Cloud Nine Hotel, when she'd first kissed Leo in a rushed decision after giving into the strong and unexpected connection to him that their conversation had made her feel. She'd pushed it away after losing New Rome, afraid that her distraction had been partly to blame for the tragedy and not wanting to invite another like it. But as they'd traveled together on this quest, it had started to return—that nonsensical connection she felt between her and the goofball Greek fire-hazard who had accidentally destroyed half of her city the previous summer. And now, in the face of what could very well be her last battle in the world of the living, she was finally forced to recognize it for what it was—attraction. Not scientific or magnetic, but a deep, emotional pull she'd never felt toward another person before. As unlikely as it may once have been, Reyna had serious feelings for Leo. That in mind, the thought of this being the last time they spoke gave her a painful twinge of sadness akin to that which she felt when remembering New Rome.

_I won't let that happen_, she vowed to herself, a steely resolve dripping through her like molten gold as she turned to face the Queen of Night. _I will make it out of this. This isn't the end for me._ She wasn't foolhardy or boastful enough to promise herself that she would defeat Nyx, but at the very least she would make it out of this fight alive. She only needed to buy Leo and Nico enough time to find Hypnos and set him free. Then their quest would be complete.

But that would undoubtedly be easier said than done. Barely a second later Nyx had finished off the last of Nico's Native American zombies and turned her catlike white-gold eyes on the only other sentient being in the room—Reyna.

"Your friends have turned tail, have they?" the goddess taunted haughtily. She swung her narrow blade in a wide, lazy circle, stepping slowly forward as though providing evidence that Reyna didn't worry her in the slightest. "Or perhaps they've gone to search for my son? I suspect that's why you're here, correct? No matter. They will not find him—and even suppose they did, he cannot be freed without my help. I'll let them play their game while I dispose of you, and then I'll bury them beneath this sand just as I did your precious city."

A day ago, that remark would have driven Reyna into a frenzy. She would've given a battle cry a coliseum lion could be proud of and charged Nyx right then and there. And she probably would've gotten herself killed very unimpressively as a result. But now, things were different. Of course she still despised the Queen of Night for what she'd done on the night of the eclipse. But she had a new motivation that she forced herself to dwell on more than revenge—helping the people she had left. And in order to draw this fight out for as long as she could, she would wait for Nyx to strike first.

Which, of course, the goddess had no qualms about. With a cruel smile, Nyx waved an arm and sent a rolling wave of darkness at Reyna, who readied herself and dodged swiftly to the side just in time. She swung her sword in anticipation of an immediate follow-up attack and wasn't disappointed as Nyx met her blade, Imperial gold and Immortal obsidian colliding with a _clang_ and a shower of cream-and-violet sparks. The goddess drove forward and Reyna leapt back, knowing she would be outmatched in a battle of strength, instead darting sideways and aiming a quick jab at Nyx's side. The goddess dodged with impressive reflexes and thrust forward with her own blade, imitating the move. The black blade slid across Reyna's side below her ribs and she gasped through her teeth as she jerked away, missing the body armor she'd worn on an almost-daily basis before the start of the war and subsequent equipment redistribution. The cut was shallow, but still it stung insistently.

Nyx followed immediately with a spinning attack, her long, midnight-blue hair cascading around her as she twirled weightlessly and aimed a heavy swing at Reyna's midsection. Reyna angled her sword to deflect the blow, which earned her another tiny cut on her left bicep that was unfortunate but favorable to being disemboweled. She sidestepped and attempted an undercut slice of her blade but again Nyx spun around and swept out an arm, this time hurling a tongue of black fire through the air. Reyna stumbled sideways but they were too close, and her vision swam black and blue as the right side of her face seemed to explode with heat.

A guttural scream escaped her throat as she staggered backward, eyes squeezed shut as she threw an arm across her face in some desperate and too-late effort to block the fire. She heard Nyx laugh, and when she forced her eyes open pained tears slid from her lashes. No part of her was on fire, but a ginger touch to her right cheekbone told her that the black flames had left their mark. Her neck just below was bleeding as well, whether from the fire or an unseen sword strike she had no idea.

Reyna growled in a combination of pain and frustration. The calm restraint she'd had minutes ago was already starting to ebb, which she knew was problematic. She couldn't afford to lose her head—figuratively or literally. But she needed a way to move onto the offensive. Dodging and blocking, apparently, couldn't last her forever.

Reyna swallowed hard, blinking the dampness from her eyes, and when the goddess struck again she was ready. Nyx swept her blade through the air and Reyna dropped to a crouch, somersaulting toward her and pointing her own sword in return. Nyx leapt sideways to avoid an attack on her legs, but Reyna was anticipating such a move and stood immediately, pivoting on one leg and landing a considerable cut along the goddess's side. Nyx's smile vanished as her ivory gown was colored with golden _ichor_.

_She must have thought she could finish me off without getting so much as a scratch,_ Reyna thought with a small smirk. _Too bad. I won't go down that easily._

Reyna's sword hand itched to attack again, but she held herself back and waited for the right moment. With a snarl, Nyx summoned another stream of black and blue fire and thrust it at Reyna, who danced rapidly sideways in evasion and again locked swords with the Queen of Night. This time she barreled forward before Nyx had the chance to overstep her again, and though she wasn't strong enough to overcome the goddess she was rewarded with a moment of delay in which Nyx spent concentration on retaining her ground. Reyna stomped hard on Nyx's foot (which may have been a low move, but when you're fighting a goddess you tend not to worry about what's fair or unfair) and drove her shoulder into the queen's chest, forcing her to stumble backward. Nyx waved her sword wildly and Reyna ducked the imprecise attack. She aimed a jab at Nyx's gut, but the goddess slipped sideways at the last second, receiving a cut to the solar plexus instead.

Now appearing quite furious, Nyx reached out and shoved a squat wall of shadow in Reyna's direction, knocking her sideways off her feet. She played her momentum into a roll and landed in a crouch facing the Queen of Night, who, all of a sudden, seemed to freeze mid-strike. Her white-gold eyes flitted upward to something over Reyna's head and her thin eyebrows drew together in apparent consternation.

"They _couldn't _have…" she muttered in a low, threatening voice. She lowered her sword and swept forward, seeming to forget that she'd been in the middle of a battle. Reyna was a little offended, truth be told, but she also had a growing feeling of dread that Leo and Nico had just done something to garner Nyx's full attention. Hopefully that 'something' was good—maybe they'd found Hypnos, maybe even been able to set him free. Either way, Reyna wasn't ready to let Nyx go after them just yet.

She stayed still as Nyx darted past her before leaping immediately to her feet. She thrust a stab at the goddess's back and would have impaled her had she not been discovered with almost no time to spare. Nyx's head turned and she threw an arm sideways, causing a rush of darkness to knock into Reyna's sword arm with so much force that not only was her blade thrown off course but she also felt a sharp, painful tug that suggested the dislocation of her right shoulder. She grunted through gritted teeth and stumbled, her eyes barely following the speed with which Nyx spun around and lashed out with her sword, driving the narrow blade cleanly into Reyna's non-dislocated shoulder.

This time the pain nearly blinded her. She might've screamed—she wasn't really focusing on her voice and more on the white-hot lava that seemed to be soaking through her skin, drawing the energy from her body. Eyes wide with anger, Nyx yanked her sword backward and again flung a hand outward, and this time Reyna had no mobility with which to dodge the wall of darkness that bowled into her, throwing her onto her back.

"_You_ can wait here," Nyx growled, though Reyna could no longer see her around the sparks and shadows obstructing her vision. "Try not to die—I want you to watch as I drain your friends' blood from their veins."

_No…_ Reyna thought weakly as silence suddenly fell cold and thick, the ivory glow from the goddess's gown vanishing in a flash. She wanted to get up and go after her, but her arms and legs felt as heavy as solid lead. Her skin tingled with growing numbness, though not enough to mask the wetness of the blood soaking uncomfortably quickly from the stab wound in her shoulder. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe evenly, praying to some god somewhere that this wasn't the end it felt so much like it should be. Leo and Nico would be fine. They would free Hypnos and escape. They would come back for her and they could all get somewhere safe. Nothing else was even possible.

After the longest few seconds Reyna had ever experienced, she heard the vague and distant sound of a door being opened, and a muffled sort of shout that sounded vaguely like her name. Hurried footsteps followed, nearing her with every smack against the marble floor.

"This isn't good," a voice muttered close by, and Reyna felt a brief wash of relief. It was Nico.

With a low grown, she forced her eyelids open and tried to focus her blurred vision in the darkness. The first thing she saw was a pair of dark eyes staring down at her, obvious worry and fear swirling in them like restless shadows. But hidden behind that was an angry, glowing fire—a warmth that helped push some of Reyna's pain from her consciousness. If she could smile, she would have. Even in times like this, Leo had that effect on her.

"Hypnos…" she inquired weakly.

"We found him," Leo said at once, some of the fear in his eyes seeming to wane at hearing her voice. "He's free—he's gone."

Reyna breathed out shortly, glad for some good news. She didn't know what she would have done had they not succeeded. "Nyx…?"

"—is coming!" Nico hissed. "We've got to do something. Should we fight or run?"

_Run!_ Reyna wanted to say. _We can't fight her. Let's get out while we can._

But she'd used up her available energy, so she was unfortunately silent as Leo answered, "If we run now, she'll go after Hypnos again. No, we've gotta beat her here and now. Otherwise all this will be for nothing."

"But…" Nico argued weakly. Reyna wished he'd come up with a better response than that. She appreciated Leo's bravado, but the best way to ensure that they all survived would be to leave immediately.

What was left of her blood seemed to run cold, though, when the next thing Leo said was, "Alright, you take Reyna. Get her somewhere safe and get help."

"What?" Nico demanded. "No, you're right. We have to stop Nyx now—"

"I know. I'll do it."

"If you think I'm leaving you here—"

"It Reyna stays much longer, she'll die. As you can probably imagine, I would really like to prevent that from happening."

It was a nice sentiment, really. And as grateful as Reyna was, she was also intensely irritated. She knew firsthand how difficult it was to fight Nyx—to gain any ground against her at all. Sure, Leo had a few more tricks at his disposal than an Imperial gold sword. But the fact of the matter was that dueling her alone would be just as dangerous for him as it was for her. And his getting himself killed was the last thing she wanted right after realizing what he meant to her.

"There's no arguing with this, is there?" Nico grumbled in defeat.

"Nope. The Supreme Commander has decided. So go on, Walking Dead. Get going!"

Reyna could tell by his voice and expression that Leo was trying desperately to lighten the otherwise extremely black mood—his signature, it seemed. And as much as she wanted to change his mind, she knew it was impossible, probably even if she did have complete command of her vocal cord.

"I'm coming back for you as soon as I can," Nico said, his voice a frustrated growl. "Don't do anything stupid."

"Wouldn't dream of it." Somehow, Leo was able to grin in a way that looked so natural that it almost relieved Reyna's worry. _Almost._

As a pair of hands which Reyna assumed must have belonged to Nico slid under her arms and lifted her aching shoulders from the floor, she locked eyes with Leo and tried some form of telepathic communication—to let him know that she cared too much to lose him now. When the message didn't seem to go through, she opened her mouth and forced out, "Don't… die."

Again, kind of a stupid thing to say. But somehow it served the purpose of conveying exactly what she wanted it to, because Leo smiled in an oddly vulnerable sort of way and responded quietly, "You either."

His eyes were the last thing Reyna saw before the darkness latched onto her like a lasso, and her consciousness slipped away into a weary, restless sleep.

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><p><strong>Man, it's been too long since I've written a good swordfight, what with my focus on my Bloodlust saga. This was really fun :D Let's do it again sometime, haha.<strong>

**So, I want this to be a combination of my own ideas plus any ideas from you guys. Please, please feel free to sumbit requests via review or PM. Maybe there's something you thought I didn't answer well enough, or a certain scene you wanted to see from someone else's point of view, or maybe something that could potentially happen after the end of the series. I think it'll be fun to involve everybody!**

**Thanks as always everybody! How 'bout a review? Later days!**

**-oMM**


	2. Parental Guidance

**Hi again, gang! Since the last one got us an action fix, I'm moving on with a cute, fluffly one-shot today. This one is dedicated to _Gfish59_, who mentioned wanting to see this scene in a review of WoS and I thought it would be fun. Turns out it was!**

**No setting needed here, just know we're now post-WoS-ending. Enjoy!**

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><p>Piper was nervous.<p>

Okay, that may have been a bit of an understatement. But at the moment, it was the only word that came readily to mind. It was kind of a universally accepted rule at Camp Lumina that calling in a favor from a god was a pretty big no-no. Unless of course you were wondering what you'd look like as a four-legged animal or you liked the idea of your next five thousand meals burning to a crisp just before entering your mouth. If you were the daring sort who loved unknown risks, you'd hardly bat an eye. But in Piper's case, she rather liked herself and her nutrition the way they were, which meant that bothering an immortal—family or not—gave her a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.

Logically, Piper wanted to think she had nothing to worry about. After all, it wasn't as though her mother had ever been openly pugnacious or scornful toward her before. The few times they'd met, they'd always gotten along just fine. But still, you never could tell with immortals. Their moods tended to change with the speed of a disco strobe light—proud and beaming one second and ready to lay down some serious hurt the next. And you did _not_ want to be in the area when that happened.

_Calm down_, Piper told herself adamantly. _She already agreed to this… sort of. Besides, it's not like I'm asking for anything outrageous. It's simple. Easy. Shouldn't be a problem at all._

At least, Piper _assumed_ her mother had already agreed. She'd been praying for days—ever since her enlightening discussion with two particular half-brothers of hers. And finally last night, she'd gotten what she hoped was a reply, in the form of a vision in her magic dagger that showed her inviting the boys out to lunch at a place of their choosing. She couldn't possibly be sure, but something told her that this was her mother's cryptic way of answering her prayers. Something was going to happen today, she was certain. Well… like seventy-five percent certain. She had a feeling the prospect of the goddess of love making an appearance at a fast food joint wasn't exactly a sure thing.

But of course, being kids, that was what the boys had chosen. And so that was what Piper had agreed to. With a sigh, she leaned around the soda station at which she was filling three drinks and saw that her dates had succeeded in choosing a table. Well, four tables technically, as the younger of the brothers was dancing along the booth which provided seating for an entire row. Luckily the place wasn't too busy, though that wasn't to say he wasn't garnering a few disapproving looks from the undoubtedly-upstanding McDonald's frequenters.

Piper winced as she set the drinks carefully on her tray and started toward the boys. "Might want to take a seat, Nathan," she said. "Don't want to make everybody jealous of how much fun you're having."

Grant snickered as his brother dropped down on the bench and said, "Good idea." When Piper set down the tray of food in her arms, the boys promptly pounced on it.

She sat back and sipped her iced tea, watching them with a small smile. She'd been spending a good amount of time with them lately in between her work on rebuilding the camp, and a big part of her kept insisting she should tell them she knew who their immortal parent was. It was fun to watch them speculate or admire what some of the other campers could do, but she could tell they were getting a little impatient. She knew how much they'd enjoy a chance to meet said parent in person, so Piper had begun praying to Aphrodite (which always made her feel a little odd) on a daily basis in hopes of playing off the pride her mother had shown for her after the Battle of the Black Moon. She'd decided to give it two weeks of asking. If after that time she hadn't received an answer, she would go ahead and tell them herself.

But an answer she'd gotten (probably), and now she was having a hard time hiding her nervous excitement. She kept shooting glances around the dining area or peering through the oversized windows, hoping for a glimpse of the goddess of love. Part of her knew that was absurd, wishful thinking, but she ignored that part. A good attitude had gotten her this far in life, and she sure as heck wasn't about to give that up now.

"Don't you want any?" Nathan asked Piper, interrupting her absent-minded search and drawing her attention to the tray of food between them.

"Nah, you guys go ahead. I'll eat back at camp."

"At least have some fries," Grant suggested, pushing some toward her. "There's no meat in them. I think."

Piper laughed, plucking a fry from the pile and biting it in half. She'd only mentioned to them once that she was a vegetarian, so the older brother's mindfulness somewhat surprised her. She thought back once again on their advice the previous week, about accepting the things you've lost by coming to know and love the things you gain as a result. She was really starting to love these boys.

"Thanks for bringing us out," Grant went on with smile. "Our dad always took us to McDonald's real late after a night game, but we haven't been in ages."

Nathan nodded in happy agreement. "Yeah, we missed it. It's fun to go out to eat sometimes."

Piper opened her mouth to say they could do this again anytime they wanted, but she was interrupted by a gentle hand on her shoulder and a good-natured voice saying, "I couldn't agree more."

As the boys looked up, Piper jerked in surprise and spun around, springing to her feet so quickly she banged her knee on the corner of the table and would've spilled her drink had Grant not quickly reached over to steady it.

"Mom! You're… here!" Piper had no trouble recognizing the intruder. Though Aphrodite was dressed far more simply than when they'd last met, she still radiated power and beauty. Standing in the McDonald's in her dusted denim capris, rose-colored T-shirt, and white sneakers with a hand on her hip and her caramel hair pulled back in a half-ponytail, she looked a little like 'the hot soccer mom next door', the one whose grass every teenager wanted to cut and whom all the dads wanted to lead the PTA meetings.

"Of course, dear," the goddess said with a brilliant smile and a flip of her hair that drew more attention than Piper was comfortable with. "You got my message, didn't you?" Expectedly, she stretched out her arms and pulled Piper into a tight embrace, which the demigod awkwardly attempted to return.

"You're Piper's mom?" Nathan asked as they separated, and Piper turned to see them both staring with wide eyes. To his brother, Nathan said in a completely audible whisper, "She's really pretty." Grant nodded wordlessly.

Aphrodite smiled knowingly. "Thank you," she said, even though she was undoubtedly used to hearing that compliment by now. "You must be Grant and Nathan Parker—Piper's told me a lot about you." Her blue eyes seemed to brighten a shade. "You both look so much like your father."

This took the boys by surprise. "You knew our dad?" Grant said, having forgotten all about his half-eaten lunch.

"Oh, yes. Very well." The goddess looked sideways at Piper as though they were sharing in a secret plot—though Piper didn't exactly feel in on the secret. She had no idea what her mother was planning, and to be honest she was a little worried. "You say you like eating out?" Aphrodite asked the boys. She knelt beside their table and lightly touched Nathan's arm. "Why don't I show you what eating out is _really_ like?"

Nathan cocked his head to the side. "You mean like… at a fancy restaurant? Dad never took us to any. He said those were for grown-ups."

"Well, you two look like grown-ups to me," the goddess argued with a half-shrug and a kind smile. "What do you say?"

Piper frowned, but the looks on the boys' faces told her they were already too interested for her to shoot the idea down.

"Right now?" Grant asked, looking around. "Or for dinner?"

Aphrodite stood straight and gave a sly smile. "Both," she answered simply, before snapping her fingers and inviting a bright flash of light that had all three half-bloods shielding their eyes. When the light faded and Piper lowered her hands, she staggered a bit in alarm.

They were standing on a restaurant balcony decorated with sparkling lights and dotted with magnificently-set tables. From the awning above their heads hung five silver crystal chandeliers, and through the wrought-iron railing they could see a river below, orange rays from the setting sun reflecting on its gently waving surface. Piper could hear calm music that seemed to emanate from the air around them.

"Where are we?" she asked, her voice small as her eyes fixed on a man pushing a gondola down the river.

"Venice," Aphrodite said happily, and when Piper turned to face her she realized that their surroundings weren't all that had changed. The goddess suddenly looked much more her part in a long, ivory silk gown that hugged her perfect curves, waves of caramel hair cascading over her bare shoulders. Topaz gems glittered at her wrists, earlobes, and throat, almost as bright as the perfectly white teeth that her soft smile just barely showed.

"Whoa, what the…?" Grant muttered, stretching his arms and tilting his head. His and his brother's wardrobes had been magically altered as well—Grant now wore a flawlessly-tailored black suit and pale golden tie while his younger brother sported a dark blue vest and trousers combo over a clean white dress shirt and bowtie. Their normally-tousled hair, which was just a shade darker than their mother's current look, was trimmed and neatly combed, their hands and faces spotless. Piper smiled for a beat—it was really quite adorable—until she happened to get a good look at her own getup. Her mother had done it again, forced her into a floor-length, light orange, draped gown (which even she had to admit looked great against her sun-kissed skin tone) and probably-ridiculously-expensive diamond jewelry. Her mismatched hair was even tied up in an elaborate twist, with curled strands trailing the sides of her face and neck. She scowled and shot her mother a pointed look, but the goddess didn't seem to notice.

"Take a seat!" Aphrodite told them all, extending a graceful arm toward the nearest table, which was already set with four plates of food.

"But…" Grant argued weakly, looking around with a frown. "How are we—?"

"Spaghetti, my favorite!" Nathan interrupted, having spared his new attire barely half a glance. He raced to the table and leaped onto a seat, leaning over a plate piled high with linguini marinara and meatballs.

Grant took a step toward his brother but then hesitated. He turned tentatively to Aphrodite. "…Is this for us?"

The goddess chuckled. "Yes. I think you'll that find we immortals do tend to give preferential treatment to our own demigod children."

"You mean Piper?" Grant asked. When Aphrodite shook her head, the look in his eyes sharpened. "So…?"

Aphrodite smiled with such warmth that even Piper felt her streak of frustration fade. She stepped between the boys and placed a hand on each of their heads, drawing Nathan's attention away from his meal. "In case you haven't guessed, I am Aphrodite, goddess of love. And I am your mother."

Grant's eyebrows shot up as Nathan said with wide eyes, "Really? Wait, does that mean we have love magic? Blegh! Gross!" He made a face, which was even more effective through the spaghetti sauce that covered his lips and chin.

Piper smiled in amusement as Aphrodite laughed melodically. "I'm not surprised you feel that way," the goddess said as she stepped around Nathan and sat down on his left, prompting Piper and Grant to take their seats as well. She lifted her wine glass and held it over her shoulder, and in the blink of an eye a waiter appeared behind her and filled it with a pale pink rosé as she went on, "But someday, you will see that knowing and understanding love is the first step to knowing and understanding people. You will be a better friend than most, and a role model to many. You will know worth, and therefore never feel less than what you are. These are gifts undervalued by others, those who don't know how great a thing empathy can be." She smiled at Piper, who found herself returning the expression without a thought. "Trust me, I see great things in you boys' futures. Starting with this great meal! Eat up!"

That was enough for Nathan, who returned to his pasta unquestioningly. Grant looked rather pleased as well, and kept stealing glances at Aphrodite and smiling as he ate. Piper was mostly quiet during the affair, choosing instead to eat the fruit and nut Caesar salad her mother had chosen for her and listen to the others reminisce about Grant and Nathan's father. She hadn't exactly expected Aphrodite to pull something so elaborate, but she couldn't have been more grateful. With all the brothers' talk of the 'superpowers' they'd wanted to discover along with their parentage, she'd begun to worry that they might be disappointed to learn the truth. But Aphrodite, of all immortals, certainly knew how to make a good impression, and it seemed that in the boys' eyes she'd succeeded in doing just that.

As they finished and rose from the table, Piper leaned close to her mother and whispered, "Thank you so much. You didn't have to do all this."

But to her surprise, her mother pushed a lock of hair behind Piper's ear and answered with a smile, "Anything for you, dear." With a glance at the twilight sky, the goddess raised her voice and addressed them all, "Well, we'd better be getting you three back home. Enjoy the rest of your day! It was so lovely to meet you, boys. Oh, and Piper, dear, be sure to take care of the dress. It's a Versace original, of course, and you know how chiffon can tear."

Mouth open to say goodbye, Piper froze. "Wait, you're not gonna—?"

But with a smile and a wave, Aphrodite once again snapped her fingers and one more flash of white light later, Piper, Grant, and Nathan were standing in the middle of one of Camp Lumina's new roads—still dressed for dinner in Venice. And, to make matters worse, it was the middle of the day back in New York, which meant that reparations were in full swing, and the sudden arrival caught the attention of every team of kids working nearby.

"Great," Piper grumbled, scowling and fisting her hands as a few Ares boys two buildings down whistled loudly. She mentally muttered a few curses aimed at the pushy goddess of love, hoping her mother couldn't somehow read her mind. Her only consolation was that—thank all the gods—she didn't see Leo anywhere close by. If her best friend caught her looking like _this_, she'd never live it down.

"Wow, it's _hot_ in these clothes," Nathan complained, tugging at his bowtie and frowning up at the August sun.

"Yeah," Grant agreed. "Let's go change. Race ya!"

"Yeah!" Nathan cheered with a laugh before setting off at a run toward the cabins.

But rather than follow his brother immediately, Grant turned to Piper and smiled. "Thanks, big sis," he said, obviously realizing that Piper had had something to do with the day's events.

"You're welcome." Piper grinned. "Little bro."

* * *

><p><strong>D'aww. I've become pretty attached to the Parker brothers, haha. They're just so cute to write and to picture.<strong>

**So anyway, I don't have a schedule for this since it's just something I'm working on when I have the time and feel like writing. I do have a couple more topics on my to-do list, but I could always use more! Got something you want to see? Now's your chance to get me to write it!**

**Thanks, everybody! Later days!**

**-oMM**


	3. Memory Lane

**Okay so this is like my new favorite thing ever.**

**I mean... Hey, everybody! Have a good new year? I hope so :D Mine was pretty awesome. We invented a Mario Kart Wii drinking game and I totally kicked ass, haha. But enough about that...**

**As I was saying, this one-shot was EPIC FUN to write. Sorry/not-sorry it's so long. A bit daunting, but I think you guys are gonna like it. I hope, anyway. I love it, if that means anything at all.**

**So what matters: ****This one-shot is dedicated to **_**So hard to chose usernames**_**, who requested some BAS scenes from Nico's point of view. This may be a little more than you bargained for, doll, seeing as I sometimes tend to go mad with power :P haha. I love writing Nico and I just couldn't stop!**

**Enjoy, everybody!**

* * *

><p><em><strong>-6 June 2011-<br>-DOA Recording Studios, California-**_

If there was one thing Nico di Angelo hated more than crowds, it was disobedient Underworld monsters. And unluckily for him, his little visit to Los Angeles after some particularly worrisome orders from his father resulted in his having to deal with both of those things at once.

By the sound of things, he'd just barely missed the attack. There were people everywhere, crowding around ambulances and news vans, trying to describe an injury or be the first to tell their version of what had caused the commotion. All traffic down the road had halted, which was sure to be ticking off quite a few motorists. All of that did, conveniently enough, make it easy for Nico to slip through the crowd undeterred, keeping his ears trained on every conversation he passed.

The way the mortals told it, you'd think the whole thing was staged. Some reported seeing a pack of wild dogs terrorizing passersby. Others swore a small herd of more exotic animals from the LA Zoo (which was nowhere near the particular area) had just stampeded down the sidewalk. Nico even heard one couple trying to convince a police officer that they'd just witnessed the abominable snowman attempting to break into the DOA building. But those were often the sort of wild explanations monster attacks garnered in the mortal world, so though Nico had a hunch the police would brush the event off as a well-planned joke, he was pretty sure he knew exactly what had truly gone down.

It looked like Hades had been right—the main entrance to the Underworld _was_ in danger. Nico chewed his tongue in consternation as he inspected the outside of DOA Recording Studios. If that one account had been even a little factual and some confident monster really had tried to break in, it must not have been very successful, as the place seemed to be intact. What was more worrisome was the prospect of what said interloper planned to do if entry had in fact been gained. Nico wasn't worried for any of the people inside, considering the fact that they were all already dead. But he supposed it was possible that this attack had been carried out with the intention of breaking someone or something out of the Underworld. The location was too much of a coincidence.

For a second, Nico leaned against the industrial glass window and watched as a pair of reporters tried and failed to gain access to the DOA building. Of course the doors wouldn't budge. Only the dead, the dying, and the immortal could pass safely through. If you were perfectly healthy, then no-go. This being the case, the reporters gave up in disappointment after a minute or so, and Nico took his chance to stride up to the doors and pull the rightmost one open when he was sure no one was paying attention. He felt a cold, dry sort of chill sweep through his body as he stepped into the lobby, but he shook it off with a shudder. Maybe regular living people couldn't enter, but Nico had pretty much been born with one foot in the grave. He practically had a reserved membership badge for the Underworld.

The blond, dark-skinned man standing at the front desk looked up with interest at the disturbance, peering over the lenses of the sunglasses he unnecessarily insisted on wearing indoors. "Ah, Nico," he drawled with something between a grin and a smirk. "Finally decided on a permanent vacation? I'll admit I'm surprised it took you so long."

"Ha, ha," Nico replied dryly, eyes narrowing. "I know you'd love to have me stuck in this room for a few centuries, but unfortunately for that enticing alternative, I'm just here on business." He didn't bother wasting time trying to be friendly, seeing as he didn't particularly _like_ Charon—the immortal's obsession with money tended to overpower any appreciation he had for his employer's rules.

"Business, eh?" Charon repeated in his haughty South African accent. "Now that's something I can sympathize with."

"I'm sure. So the attack this morning. I want to know what you saw, and if you bothered to do anything to stop it."

Charon's highlighted eyebrows drew together. "It hurts, Nico, that you'd accuse me of neglect for the living. After all, without the living, where would we get our dead?"

Nico raised an eyebrow, undeterred. "From unmitigated monster attacks."

Charon actually had the nerve to laugh. "So true. You're right, of course. Interfering would have been, ah… above my pay grade. I chose instead to wait here and see if the locks loosened, so to speak."

Nico rolled his eyes. Typical. "Whatever. Did you at least see where they came from, or if anyone was running point?"

"Didn't see much from here, no. Why don't you ask the Fury?"

"What Fury?" Nico snapped impatiently.

"The one who stopped that Cyclops from attempting to smash through the doors. She seemed to be rounding them up at the end, undoubtedly on your or Lord Hades's orders, so I assume…" An interested frown pulled at his expression as he paused at the look on Nico's face. "Unless she _wasn't_ acting on orders… In which case one might wonder what she would be doing topside in the first place. Perhaps it isn't me you should be questioning, after all."

Nico scowled, trying not to let his surprise and unease show on his face. The last he knew, the three Furies were carrying out orders in the Underworld, something to do with the mysterious escape of a number of creatures. There shouldn't have been any reason for one to be here, in Los Angeles, in the middle of the day. Charon made it sound like the Fury had stopped the attack, but for whatever reason the situation worried Nico.

"Daytime monster attacks, Furies going rogue…" Charon sighed dramatically. "What is this Underworld coming to? It all boils down to employee dissatisfaction. If you ask me, we could all do with—"

"I didn't _ask_ you," Nico interrupted through gritted teeth.

Charon just shrugged. "Not looking for a survey, that's fine. Just pass the message to your good father, would you?"

"Thanks for your _help_," Nico said noncommittally, the last word coated in obvious sarcasm. He turned his back on Charon, ignoring the immortal's final goodbye and useless warning, and ducked out of the DOA building (which was a much more difficult task than entering; the door was three times as heavy, like a gusting wind was buffeting it from the other side). He didn't have time to waste dealing with Charon's 'employee dissatisfaction'. Apparently, he had a Fury to track down.

Once outside, Nico slid into a shadowy alleyway and leaned against the wall, closing his eyes and focusing on the energies around him. He reached mentally through the nearby shadows and tried to sense where the DOA building's ambushers had escaped to. If a Fury was involved, there was a chance she could have shadow-traveled to somewhere beyond his immediate scope. But at the moment, he wasn't too far behind the attack. Maybe he'd get lucky and they didn't go far.

Lucky. Ha. Nico was pretty sure he'd never in his life used that word to describe himself.

But by some miracle, luck was what he got—it was faint, but he could sense a dark energy that he was sure belonged either to a group of weak Underworld creatures or one or two powerful ones. With a satisfied smirk, he focused his attention on the spot and pushed backward, disappearing into the shadowy brick wall behind him.

When the shadows faded, Nico was standing in another dim alleyway in a much less crowded part of the city. He leaned away from the wall and started to look around when a raspy voice nearby whispered harshly, "It doesn't _matter_ what you thought!"

Quietly Nico held his breath and dropped to a crouch beside an overflowing dumpster. That voice definitely belonged to a Fury.

"What matters," the Fury went on, "is that you were under orders to stay _away_ from the Underworld! Do you _want_ Lord Hades to find you? No, don't answer that. Just lay low like you were told. We do not want to hear anything more about mortals being attacked in this area. Go!"

Heavy footsteps grew near and Nico tensed, hand silently reaching for the hilt of the iron sword belted to his waist. Five seconds passed before three grumbling Cyclopes hurried by his hiding place, appearing not to see him. They must have been too focused on escaping the Fury's wrath to notice the very obvious scent of a Big Three demigod right next to them.

Nico couldn't help a bewildered frown. Two lucky happenstances in a row had to mean he was in for a majorly _un_lucky one very soon. That was just how his world worked.

"Patience, Megaera," a voice rasped calmly.

Behind the dumpster, Nico froze. There were two of them.

"A few attacks on mortals are not going to change the game. We are too far along. We ourselves must take care."

Nico peered carefully around the dumpster and laid eyes on the two Furies, one with long, ropy, sand-colored hair and another with a matted gray bun. Megaera and Alecto.

Megaera gave a low growl of frustration in response to her sister. "But so near the Underworld? If the master discovers—"

"He is _not_ our master now!" Alecto hissed, red eyes flashing in the darkness. "Remember that!"

Megaera flinched and seemed to shrink a bit, her talon-like claws curling inward. In the shadows, Nico scowled and fought the urge to click his tongue in uneasy annoyance. So the Furies really _had_ turned from Hades. That was a problem, but what worried Nico more was the question of whom they were working for now.

"Let him think the beasts were attempting a break-in, it does not matter," Alecto went on in a lower voice. "So long as he does not discover the truth, it will be too late to stop it."

_Yeah, we'll see if this stays hidden,_ Nico thought bitterly. They weren't going to get away with whatever it was they were planning. Not now that he knew about it.

"We must report to the Queen," Megaera said. "This side-trip has delayed us too long. She will be displeased."

_Queen?_ Nico wondered. He'd been about to shadow-travel away before the Furies had a chance to discover him, but that word made him pause. If he could find out who was giving them orders…

"She will understand," Alecto argued, though there was a hint of apprehension in her voice. "We have purpose. Come. We should meet with her immediately."

Without further discussion, each Fury placed a hand against the back wall of the alley and stepped into the shadowy brick like it wasn't there. Startled and making a quick decision, Nico leapt to his feet and rushed after them, using all his mental power to keep their energies in his focus. He reached out a hand and called the darkness to him while concentrating hard on Alecto and Megaera, and in no time he was speeding through the black void that connected them to the Furies' unknown destination.

_**-6 June 2011-  
>-Death Valley, California-<strong>_

As the shadows thinned and Nico's feet hit solid ground, he felt the vigor stream from his body and some of the breath leave his lungs. He gritted his teeth and shook his head—shadow-traveling while focusing on a moving entity was much more difficult than shadow-traveling while focusing on a stationary location. Hopefully he'd managed to hold onto Alecto and Megaera and hadn't gotten himself dropped off in some random place in between.

"This way," he heard Alecto whisper, and with a jolt he realized she and Megaera were standing only a few yards in front of him. Quickly and quietly he dashed out of sight and ducked behind the first obstacle he could find, which turned out to be a solid, black pillar made of what looked and felt like glass. He waited a few seconds before leaning around the corner to inspect their location.

Nico could safely say he had absolutely no idea where he was. It was a long, low room, sort of like a parking garage. It was pitch dark, and Nico could sense that the walls, if there were any, were far away from him in all directions. His eyes took barely a few seconds to adjust to the blackness and show him a marble floor and ceiling connected by numerous copies of the black glass pillar he was leaning against, arranged in a grid-like pattern. The place had a cold, dead sort of atmosphere, almost like a tomb. It reminded Nico of the Underworld, but somehow less homey.

Great. Now he was referring to the Underworld as 'homey'. Probably best if nobody found out about that.

He followed the Furies through the darkness, keeping a few pillars behind them, until a soft, dim light came into view. As they neared, Nico felt a hugely powerful aura—like a _godly_ aura. It seemed to slowly sap the strength from his muscles, making him feel like he'd just come off a ten-mile run or a long, tiring battle. When they got close enough, he finally saw what was causing it: in what was probably the middle of the vast, underground room sat an old-fashioned, high-backed throne made of the same black and purple glass as the pillars, and on it was lounged a tall, slender woman with midnight-blue hair and a glowing, ivory gown. She wore a diadem made of that same dark glass, and her white-gold, cat-like eyes were cold and piercing as she gave orders to a trio of Scythian dracaenae.

Nico knew at once that this was no ordinary woman—or even an ordinary immortal. She was a goddess, alright, but not the same as the ones on Mount Olympus. This goddess was bathed in an old-world sort of power; she was more ancient than any of the gods Nico had met in the past, with the exception of maybe Gaea. That thought made his stomach turn over uncomfortably. Could he really be in the presence of another primordial goddess? Was that even possible?

"My Queen," Alecto said with a reverent bow once the goddess had dismissed the dracaenae and the two Furies had approached the throne.

"You are late," the goddess said calmly, her voice as light and chilly as the night wind. Her expression remained passive.

"Forgive us," Megaera pleaded. "A group of rogues attacked the mortal entrance to the Underworld. We were forced to intervene."

The Furies seemed tense, but the goddess only nodded. Her eyes lifted to lazily survey the area and Nico ducked silently behind a pillar, taking a slow, calming breath and feeling as though his racing heartbeat would get him discovered. After a second of silence, the goddess asked, "How is our progress?"

"The preparations are moving along smoothly," Alecto explained, jumping on the subject change. "Many of the beacons are in place. The formation will be completed on schedule, I have no doubt."

"And the blood sacrifice will be ready," the goddess mused, sounding pleased. "I will have enough Olympian blood to finally raise him from his prison."

Nico swallowed hard through rapidly-tightening throat muscles. A blood sacrifice? Raise someone from prison? This was suddenly a lot bigger than he'd thought. Maybe he should've taken his half-sister Hazel's advice from the other day and been a little less reckless with his decision-making.

_I gotta get out of here…_

Carefully, he stepped around the side of the pillar and turned toward the back of the room, but he froze in alarm when his eyes shifted to meet a pair of glowing red orbs staring back at him above a malicious, sharp-toothed grin.

"Hello, Nico," the third Fury, Tisiphone, crooned with morbid delight.

It took everything Nico had not to yell in surprise. He reached instinctively for his sword, but Tisiphone was way ahead of him with a snap of her fiery whip. The living flame wrapped itself around Nico's wrist and he growled as it seared his skin, yanking his arm away from his weapon. He thrust out his left hand and tried to concentrate his will on taking mental control of the Fury, but after indirect shadow-travel and the goddess's aura he was too weak to muster the proper strength. Tisiphone cackled and tugged on her whip, dancing around Nico and twisting his arm behind his back. With her free hand she touched the points of three talons beneath his chin and dug her knee into his leg, urging him forward out from behind the cover of the pillar.

"Look what I found!" Tisiphone announced, though the room's other occupants were already looking in their direction.

"_You_," Alecto snarled, which was basically her standard greeting for Nico.

The goddess arched an eyebrow, but Nico wasn't planning to stick around for introductions. With his free arm, he elbowed Tisiphone hard in the stomach and she muttered a weak "Oof!" as she stumbled, scratching her claws loosely down Nico's neck and relinquishing the tightness of her whip. He wrenched his burned wrist free and drew his sword, using it to slice off the Fury's clawed hand which still clung to the handle of the whip. Tisiphone screeched and reeled backward and Nico dodged around her, preparing to shadow-travel to the surface without looking back.

The room vanished as the darkness closed quickly around him, and he could already feel the rush of stale air start when suddenly something thin and wiry wound around his waist and jerked him backward, knocking the wind out of him. The underground room reappeared as he was hurled flat on his back on the marble floor.

Nico could hear the Furies sniggering as he rolled over and gasped hoarsely, momentarily unable to breathe. Apparently, being interrupted mid-shadow-travel was very bad for the respiratory system.

"Leaving so soon?" a cool voice asked rhetorically, and Nico looked up to see the goddess standing over him with her pale arms folded across her chest.

"How…?" he stammered, his voice weak and scratchy as he continued to try and fail to catch his breath.

The goddess knelt gracefully and leaned closer, a tiny smile pulling at her lips and not quite reaching her white-gold eyes. "Shadow-travel is a wonderful thing, isn't it? A handy way to traverse great distances or breach impassable walls in little to no time at all. I should know—I helped develop it."

Nico's eyes widened. This goddess, she couldn't be…

"You are the son of Hades," she said, reaching out a hand and gently brushing Nico's hair from his eyes. "Nico di Angelo. What a pleasant surprise this is." He wanted to back away from her, but the feel of her fingers on his skin seemed to once again steal away the energy left in his body. His vision swam for half a second and he had the sudden and highly inconvenient urge to lie down and take a long nap.

"You're…" he muttered sleepily.

Her smile grew. "I am Nyx. The Queen of Night."

Nico's heart sank. Nyx… The primordial goddess of night, sister to Gaea the Earth Mother. His hopes of getting out of there alive dropped to subzero levels.

"He knows too much, my Queen," Megaera spoke up as Nyx rose. "We must eliminate him now while he is weak."

"His father is Lord of the Dead," Nyx reminded the Fury. "Killing him would be the quickest way to alert Hades to our location. As you know, my return must remain a secret until the time is right."

"We could lock him up here," Alecto suggested, eyes flashing toward Nico with a mix of anger and apprehension as he stumbled shakily to his feet. "He has the blood of the Elder Titan. He could be our chief sacrifice—"

"Our chief sacrifice is already on the way," Nyx interrupted. "And keeping him here could be dangerous, much for the same reason as killing him. Besides, he has power over you three, does he not?"

The three Furies (Tisiphone cradling her smoking stump of an arm and whimpering) exchanged nervous looks. "My queen," Megaera said, "we would never turn from you—"

"Enough," Nyx cut her off calmly. She didn't sound angry, but still the Furies seemed to shy away from her. "Your loyalty would not be the issue were your wills to fall subject to his. This is not something I can risk, not now when we are so very close."

Nico backed up slowly during the conversation and the second Nyx turned her back on him he broke into a run, forcing his tired legs into motion. He knew it was probably pointless, but if he could just get far enough away to use shadow-travel, he might be able to get free with enough time to warn his father what was happening.

But of course, Nyx wasn't going to let him go that easily. Something solid bowled Nico over from behind, his momentum throwing him to the floor and sending him rolling across the marble. Every muscle and bone in his body ached and his mind wanted nothing more than to give up on consciousness altogether, but if he let it, he had no idea what state he'd be in when he woke again. Or if he'd wake up at all. Trying to come up with a course of action that wasn't completely idiotic, he shifted his arms and started to push himself up on his elbows when he was halted midway by the point of an iron sword—_his_ iron sword—jabbing sharply against his chest.

"No," Nyx said slowly at the blade's other end, "I know what we must do with him."

"Kill him?" Megaera suggested hopefully as the Furies stepped closer. "Maybe maim him a little?"

"Take him to the Underworld," Nyx went on as though Megaera hadn't spoken, and Nico felt his eyebrows draw weakly in a frown. The Underworld? Wasn't that exactly what she _didn't_ want to happen?

The Furies looked mildly confused as well and Alecto opened her mouth to object, until Nyx silenced them all by explaining, "The River Lethe will solve our problem."

Nico's mind went blank. _No…_ he though as he was overcome with a wash of dread. The waters of the River Lethe had the unique ability of erasing memories. And not just a few memories, but _all_ of them. Your entire life. He'd seen it happen; it was where souls who chose rebirth after death went to be… well, reborn. It wasn't something you could come back from.

"The Lethe," Alecto repeated. "Genius, my Queen. We will take him at once."

"Good. Make sure he is fully immersed. I want nothing of this to surface. When it's done, leave him somewhere far away from any who might be looking for him, just in case."

The Furies bowed. "As you wish."

Nico felt panic welling up inside him as Nyx lowered his sword and refastened it to his belt. "Keep it, as my gift to you to commemorate our meeting. We wouldn't want you dying before your time."

He shook his head defiantly, too tired to speak, and could only watch as Nyx reached out and gently touched his forehead. A powerful surge of her godly aura swept the last of the strength from his body and his arms gave out, dropping him on his back on the marble floor. His vision blurred as Nyx, now just a blotch of blue and ivory, leaned over him and whispered, "Goodnight, son of Hades. I fear we may not meet again."

_Fear…_ Funny, that was exactly what Nico was feeling. He tried to convince himself that there was a chance they'd never make it to the Lethe, that they would be discovered crossing the Underworld before then. But he was the only one who knew that the Furies were no longer loyal to Hades, so their presence—and even his own, conscious or not—wouldn't be questioned.

There was nothing he could do. His memories, his _life_, were forfeit. He was losing consciousness fast and would soon be helpless to resist what the Furies were going to do to him.

It didn't matter if he woke again afterward. The second he was submerged in the River Lethe, heartbeat or no heartbeat, Nico di Angelo would be dead.

_**-12 June 2011-  
>-Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee-<strong>_

_Calm. Stay calm. Calm and quiet._

That's what he kept telling himself, not that it did much good. This darn forest was so quiet he could practically hear his own heartbeat. His breathing sounded like a tornado, and every footstep was like a grenade going off.

But panicking would get him nowhere. That freakin' monster of a hunter was out there somewhere, always closer than he thought, just waiting for him to slip up. Again. He'd already played this stupid game of cat-and-mouse twice and was now gunning for round three. He didn't know what this creep's obsession with 'the thrill of the chase' was, but it wasn't the sort of thrill he, as the prey, could say he shared.

It was a little disconcerting to think of himself as 'prey', but still more disconcerting was the fact that he really had nothing else to refer to himself as at all. In fact, the list of presumably-important things he didn't know (like his name, his age, where he was, where he came from, if he had friends or family, literally anything that had transpired before that endless forest) was a heck of a lot longer than the list of things he _did_ know (that he was being chased by a seven-foot-tall madman and he really didn't feel like getting caught again). It was intensely frustrating, all in all. He figured maybe if he had a little time to think, he could try and remember something—anything—about his past or his current situation. Unfortunately, the hunter didn't seem to want to give him much of that. The only time he really had to himself was spent at the hunter's lodge in a cage surrounded by pelts, furs, bones, and other living creatures in captivity. It wasn't exactly the most peaceful and thought-provoking of places.

He crept silently between the trees and ducked into the darkened shadow behind a thick trunk, leaning against it to catch his breath. Tiny streams of moonlight forced their way through the thick canopy of leaves above his head, illuminating rough patches on the forest floor. His eyes traced a haphazard pattern of the spots as he strained his ears to listen for the hunter, who was undoubtedly still on his tail. He glanced carefully over his shoulder as his fingers moved instinctively to the silver skull ring on his right hand, twisting it absently. He wasn't sure why, but touching it seemed to make him feel better somehow—like it was something he'd always done, even though he had no way of knowing if that were true.

He heard the distant sound of leaves rustling and dropped to a crouch, giving up the search in favor of safety for the time being. He remained still for a few long, quiet seconds. He might've been jumping to conclusions—there were a lot of things in a forest that could have made that noise (not that he'd technically _seen_ any; this particular wilderness seemed to be conspicuously devoid of wildlife). Uneasily, he shifted to lean back around the tree trunk to check, but he made the mistake of resting his hand on the ground without first watching its placement and was rewarded with an audible _snap_ as a thin branch broke beneath his weight.

His eyes widened as a low voice suddenly whispered, "Gotcha."

Cursing under his breath, he threw himself back behind the tree trunk to dodge the gunshot he knew was coming. The hunter's modified bullet chipped a sliver of bark from the tree a bit too close for comfort, and he leapt to his feet with an anxious scowl and took off running in the opposite direction. He weaved in and out of the trees, aiming this time for speed rather than stealth. The hunter fired again and he ducked instinctively, barely aware of the strike landing in a tree to his left. That gunshot had sounded closer; the hunter must have been gaining ground. Worried, he shot a glance over his shoulder, realizing too late that this was probably an incredibly stupid move. Predictably, the lapse in forward vision caused him to trip over something on the rough forest floor, and with a surprised yell he was flung forward, skidding in the dirt until the thick trunk of a tree ground him painfully to a halt.

With a groan he rolled onto his back and pushed himself up on his elbows, but grew still as his pursuer stepped calmly and slowly through the darkness into view, hunting rifle resting against his shoulder. The man's close-set eyes peered down at his quarry from seven feet in the air, a rather pleased smirk on his face.

"None too often I get to hunt somethin' as lively as you."

"What do you want with me?" said quarry blurted, a well of hopeless panic squeezing at his stomach. It was all too much—being stuck in this forest playing game after horrible game of extreme hide-and-seek with a gigantic madman, not knowing his own identity or how any of this had happened. If this kept up for much longer, he was likely to go crazy himself.

But the hunter didn't seem to care. Removing the scope from his rifle and aiming the barrel at the helpless, memory-less boy on the ground, he answered, "What every hunter wants: game. And you, my friend, are big game indeed."

The boy glared at the hunter, wishing he knew what that meant. Big game? How could he be big game? He might've asked if he'd had time, but another second brought another gunshot, and this time sharp pain jagged across his chest before he was knocked out cold, once again at the hunter's mercy.

_**-13 June 2011-  
>-Cherokee National Forest, Tennessee-<strong>_

He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Over the past few days in that thick forest (at least, he was pretty sure it was a few days; it was really hard to tell when the hunter kept sedating him), the only other living beings he'd laid eyes on had been the hunter and his caged animals (some of which were highly terrifying and made no sense whatsoever). But now, during his fourth between-capture expedition through the woods, traveling along a stream had led him to a tiny gathering between three very real teenagers.

It was kind of freaky, to say the least. Technically, they were the first people he could remember coming into contact with aside from the hunter, though he wanted to think that before the forest he must have known others. They could have been working with the giant, or they could have been more of his 'game'. The chances of their being innocent passersby were low—all three of them were dirty and sporting many cuts and bruises, and a huge, golden sword that didn't exactly look like a toy lay on the dirt beside one of them. No, these people were here for a reason.

He probably should've avoided them on the off chance they _were_ involved with the hunter, but spying on three unaware teenagers when you couldn't remember seeing anyone else _ever_ was a really tough chance to pass up, so for just a few minutes he chose to stay still and quiet in the shadows nearby. The one with the sword was just sitting on the ground, leaning against a heavy rock and twirling a tiny stone in her hand. Her strange gold blade gave off a dim glow, illuminating her chocolate skin and curly, cinnamon-colored hair. She was dressed averagely enough in jeans, a purple T-shirt, a denim jacket, and hiking boots. In fact, the sword was really the only thing abnormal-looking about her at all.

The other two people were farther away and tougher to make out through the darkness, but it looked like a guy and a girl. They were seated close together on a flat rock by the stream, heads together as though in quiet conversation. The watcher fought a moment of indecision over whether or not talking to the group would be suicidal, but it was interrupted when he shifted sideways and brushed against a leafy branch, causing the guy by the stream to turn sharply in his direction.

He bit down on his tongue to keep from swearing and took a tentative step backward, which of course only succeeded in making more noise and drawing the attention of both girls as well. In no time all three kids were on their feet and creeping steadily toward the shadows in which he hid. The way they moved, careful and stiff, begot some sort of serious combat training.

_Aw, man… What the heck did I get myself into now?_

Screw diplomacy. He had to get out of there. He stepped out from behind the tree, relying on the cover of darkness, and made to dart away from the tiny clearing. He only made it two and a half steps, however, before a bronze light flashed to life and the sharp blade of a one-handed sword appeared—literally out of nowhere—whipping toward his throat.

"Hey, whoa!" he yelled in alarm before the sword's edge came to rest a hair away from neck. Yup. Looked like a rendezvous was definitely suicidal.

But surprisingly, the sword point dropped as the person holding it—a tall, dark-haired guy who looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old—said in obvious surprise, "_Nico?_"

He wasn't really sure what that meant. Maybe they didn't speak English? If that was the case, things were about to get a whole lot harder.

But then the curly-haired girl's sword slipped from her hands as she gasped and practically shouted, "Oh, thank the gods—you're alive!" proving that at least one of them did, in fact, understand English. And then, to the boy's complete and utter bewilderment, she launched herself forward and wrapped him in a crushing hug. His brain seemed to stop working for a few seconds as it tried to process the abrupt change from almost being beheaded to being welcomed with open arms—literally. What the heck kind of people _were_ these kids?

Carefully, he reached up and pushed the girl slowly away from him by the shoulders, studying her face to see if maybe he'd actually seen her somewhere before. She didn't look familiar.

"Who _are_ you guys?" he asked, trying the same fruitless trick on the other two. "And… what's 'Nico'?"

For a second everyone was dead silent, all three of them staring at him like they couldn't understand a word he was saying.

"W… What?" the curly-haired girl muttered. "You… don't recognize us?"

Now he knew something was up. "Should I?"

"We're your friends," the guy with the sword said weakly, exchanging a glance with the blonde girl beside him.

"And I'm your _sister_," said the other girl. She took a step toward the boy but, now thoroughly confused, he took a reflexive step back. Friends were one thing, but a sister? They didn't even look anything alike! There was no way what they were saying was true. …Was there?

"Sister…" he repeated, the word sounding somehow alien on his own tongue. "I don't have a…" He shook his head. He couldn't exactly say for sure that he didn't have a sister, considering he couldn't even remember his own name. Might as well go for the truth, then. "I mean, I don't… I don't remember having a sister."

"Don't… remember?" she said. The look of hurt on her face actually made him feel bad. He didn't know however, if that was because part of him knew her or if it was just human nature.

"What _do_ you remember?" the blonde girl asked in a calm, calculative sort of tone.

"Nothing before this place. And so far, the only other guy I've seen is a total nutcase, so you three had better start explaining what you're doing here." His eyes darted to the two sword points as he worried that this was another of the giant's stupid tricks.

As though reading his mind, the dark-haired guy said hurriedly, "We're not working with the hunter." For some reason, he touched what looked like a pen cap to the tip of his sword and the boy almost had a heart attack when the blade morphed rapidly into a ballpoint pen, which the guy slid nonchalantly into his pocket. Nobody else reacted strangely to this.

The blonde girl stepped forward diplomatically. "We actually came here looking for you. But we lost the rest of our group."

He frowned. "You were… looking for me?" All three of them seemed perfectly sure that he was the person they thought he was. It could have been a trap, but what did he have to lose, really? He'd been stuck in this forest with only that insane hunter for company, all the while wishing he could figure something out about himself, and now here were three people who could potentially help with that—he had to at least give it a shot. "So… you guys really _do_ know me?"

"Of course we do." The older guy shrugged. "Your name's Nico di Angelo, you're fifteen years old—well, technically you're almost ninety, but that's sort of complicated—"

_Ninety—what? _he thought with a jolt. The guy must have been joking. But still, he now (probably) had answers to two of the questions he'd been wracking his brain to remember for days. That word he'd heard when the guy had almost sliced his head off—Nico—that was his _name_. It didn't really strike any particular chords, or sound more familiar than any other name, but it was nice to at least have something to go by.

"What Percy's _trying_ to say," the blonde girl was saying, "is that you're a good friend of ours. Your father sent you to investigate something last week and you never came back. We're glad you're okay, but… You really don't remember how you got here?"

Nico scowled, which he'd noticed seemed to be a default expression of his. "What part of that is so hard to understand? First thing I remember is waking up here in this forest. Then I get caught by this crazy, giant hunter guy, then he lets me go and hunts me down _again_. This is the third time I've made it out of there, but he must have gotten lost or something." He shuddered at the memories—the few he actually had. "I'm telling you, guy's a serious headcase."

"We know," the guy—Percy, the one girl had called him—said dryly. "We met him."

"So what's with the weapons?" Nico asked. If these people really were his friends, it'd be nice to know what exactly they were involved in. "Are you guys like… exterminators or something?"

Percy shrugged, looking amused. "Actually, we sort of are. But we're on your side."

"I don't even know what my 'side' _is_."

"The point is, you can trust us," the blonde girl interrupted in that same calm, commanding tone. She must have been the brains of whatever operation these kids were running. "We should keep moving. In case that hunter comes looking for us. We can follow the stream."

She started moving, prompting Percy to nod and follow along. The curly-haired girl—Nico's sister?—looked like she wanted to say something, but chose instead to raise her eyebrows questioningly, inquiring if Nico was going to come along. After a moment of indecision, he lifted a shoulder and they both started walking.

Sure, it could've been a trap. But for better or worse, he was casting his lot in with these sword-wielding strangers. Weapons or no weapons, something told him they were better company than that hunter any day of the week.

_**-14 June 2011-  
>-Cloud Nine Hotel, Los Angeles-<strong>_

Nico never thought he'd say it, but he actually missed Tennessee.

Sure, his days playing catch-me-if-you-can with Orion hadn't exactly been the best of times. But that was before he'd been introduced to the Cloud Nine Hotel, which came with free Wi-Fi, a continental breakfast, and two flesh-eating giant wolf-rat hybrids.

Oh, yeah. Two _poisonous_ flesh-eating giant wolf-rat hybrids. Couldn't forget that, considering said poison was currently doing a heck of a number on every organ in Nico's body. If it wasn't for the door against which he was leaning, he'd undoubtedly have collapsed by now. Not that it was likely to provide help for much longer, if the heavy force banging into it every few minutes had anything to say about it.

And believe it or not, that wasn't even the worst part. Apparently, according to Annabeth, this whole thing was nothing but a shared dream the seven of them were trapped in—some sort of magic nightmare trial. Well, the _six_ of them now, seeing as the tough girl with the purple cloak had just stabbed the fire-summoning guy in the chest. Because, of course, the only way for them to get _out_ of said magic nightmare trial was to die.

Right. Because that made perfect sense. Wasn't Annabeth supposed to be the smart one?

Not that Nico was about to object to this plan. Hey, if dying was what they needed to do, then he was at least halfway there already, judging by the wrenching pain in his stomach akin to something gnawing him apart from the inside out. What did he have to lose by speeding up the process?

"Let's get moving," the cloaked girl, Reyna, said in a voice low with urgency. "What do you need?"

"A bottle," Annabeth answered as she stood up unsteadily, looking like she was trying specifically to avoid looking at Leo, who was unnaturally still, or Percy, whose fingers were twitching weakly as blood continued to stream from… well, everywhere. "Some flammable liquid, a rag, and a match. And turn on one of those stoves, but don't let the flame light. We just want it to release the gas."

Reyna did as she was told, and in seconds the faint smell of poisonous vapor drifted in the air. Both girls set to work immediately, darting around the kitchen and gathering Annabeth's short shopping list of materials.

Nico grimaced as he watched them. He was pretty sure that if he ever had to explain this situation to someone, they would immediately admit him to permanent care in the nearest mental institution. "I can't believe I'm friends with you crazy people," he muttered, hoping that saying it aloud would help lighten the situation. All it really did, however, was draw a wave of nausea up his throat that made him cough like an asthmatic, his stomach tying itself in extremely painful sailor's knots. He wouldn't be surprised if some clawed creature punched through his gut at any second.

"Let's just hope we all make it out of this so you remember us crazy people," Grover said weakly from beside him, fixing him with a worried frown—though that worry could've been for the situation just as well as it could've been for Nico specifically. He thought he heard Hazel's voice from across the room, but she was too far away and mumbling too much for him to decipher her words.

Annabeth and Reyna seemed to speed up (though it could've just been Nico's brain power slowing down) and in another few seconds Annabeth was kneeling beside her boyfriend, holding a makeshift incendiary. Time seemed to slow as it took her three attempts to light it, and stop completely as she hurled it through the air.

Glass shattered, fire blazed, voices screamed, and they all woke up on the floor of the hotel lobby.

Alive. They were alive. Annabeth had been right after all.

And that was when Nico decided to believe everything she and the others told him.

_**-14 June 2011-  
>-Cloud Nine Hotel, Penthouse Suite, Los Angeles-<strong>_

"Have you made a decision?"

Boy, that was a question. Nico had spent days wishing he could find a way to remember who he was, and now one was staring him in the face. The only catch—either it worked, or he'd end up dead.

But somehow, that didn't seem to weigh as heavily as he knew it should. That insane dream had proven to him that everything these people—his friends—had told him was true. There was a whole other world out there, a world he was sure he was supposed to be part of. Even dying didn't seem as bad anymore as not finding out the truth. Did that say something about him? Or, better question—how badly did he want to know what?

Nico took a deep breath, replaying Hazel's words in his head: _You're a hero, Nico. That's what you're like._ The woman in the woods had said that he knew something important—something that could help a lot of people. What kind of hero would he be if he didn't at least try to get that back?

There was no decision to make. He looked straight into the god's—yeah, _god's_—golden eyes and replied, "Yeah. Let's do it."

"Very well," the god Hypnos agreed with a small smile. "The couch behind you should suffice. Make yourself comfortable."

_Easier said than done,_ Nico thought tensely as he made his way around the couch and dropped onto the cushion.

"This'll work," Annabeth said. "I know it. Nobody knows sleep like Hypnos—we can count on him." She really did sound sure, which actually helped a bit. Nico was starting to understand just how smart Annabeth was. If she believed in something, it was probably a safe bet. Probably.

Hypnos reentered a minute later, setting a pot of incense on the coffee table. "This hypnagogic oil will help induce a kind of hypnotic sleep," he explained as everyone's eyes started to droop, "that will cloud your mind from outside influence and ensure that you don't wake before your soul has reconnected itself."

Nico swallowed hard. This was sounding crazier by the minute. "And… what are the chances this whole thing will work?"

Hypnos sat on the edge of the table. "Hard to say. That will depend entirely on you, and your memory's willingness to return. You'll want to lie down—less chance of hitting your head on the table." Nico did as he was told, feeling his throat turn dry. This was it.

"Good luck, man," Percy said, uncharacteristically serious. Nico nodded to him, unable to make his mouth form any more words.

Then Hypnos's hand appeared in the air above Nico. The god began to mutter in a language that Nico, for some reason, understood as ancient Greek, melodic words about dreams carrying souls and minds to the void and back again. He glanced sleepily to his right and met Hazel's eyes, bright gold and full of anxious worry, before the pull of unconsciousness drew his lids closed and the penthouse suite disappeared.

What followed was an experience he would never be able to explain, no matter how hard he tried.

He dreamed he was sitting in a pool of dark water, surrounded by blackness on all sides. It should've been unsettling, but for some reason the darkness didn't scare him. As he sat there, in the middle of some pool the edges of which he couldn't see, his most immediate memories started to slip away. What was he doing before this? How had he gotten here? Was this real or an illusion?

The more he thought about it, the more those questions didn't seem to matter. The water was warm and soothing and who cared where it came from? He was perfectly fine staying there a while longer.

That is, until he realized that the water level had risen higher. It was roughly two feet deep a minute ago, but now it about reached his shoulders. He stood up quickly, alarmed, and looked around for the cause. But still, all he could see was darkness.

He wondered if maybe he'd imagined it, if the water had actually been that high all long. But then he glanced down and realized that it had risen again, and quickly, so that he was submerged from the chest down. Some innate brainwave told him this was bad, that it would probably be in his best interest to get out of that pool. So he started to wade through the still water toward a bank he couldn't see but he assumed had to exist.

The water, however, didn't seem to like that. It started to swirl lazily, like a sleeping lion stirring from a nap, and before Nico knew it the level was over his shoulders and reaching for his mouth. He tilted his head back and tried to swim upward, but the swirling current by his feet had picked up, tugging on his shoes and refusing to let go.

Nico felt a flash of panic as the black water waved and splashed at his face, no longer comfortably warm and now icy cold, like the hands of death. With an anxious yell, he lost his battle altogether as it swept over his head and forced him down below its surface.

Now completely submerged, Nico thrashed around, trying and failing to swim for freedom. He opened his eyes and saw only darkness. He was starting to get lightheaded. It might have been his imagination, but he could have sworn he saw a flash of gray light below him. With nowhere else to go, he forced his way toward it, the water fighting him all the while.

Then the light flashed again. Something was down there, he knew it. But the current certainly wasn't making it easy for him to get to it. In a spurt of desperation, he unconsciously reached out with his mind in an effort to gauge what it was, and a flash flood of words and images broke into his head in return.

_You promised you would protect her!_

_You have no power over me. I am the lord of spirits! The ghost king!_

_Most of the other Titans are unleashed now and on Kronos's side. Maybe it's time to think extreme._

_You're the only person who might be able to get him to listen._

_Remember what I said. Holding grudges is a fatal flaw for children of Hades._

Nico doubled over underwater and accidentally inhaled a mouthful of black liquid. His vision flashed with colored dots, effects of a sudden and blinding headache.

_Hades… Children of Hades…_ These were memories. These were _his_ memories—the ones he'd, ironically, forgotten he'd lost. They were suddenly _so close_ he could feel them, trying to cram their way back into his head as the water pressure increased around him from all sides. His skull felt like it was splitting open, but he forced his mind to reach back out to the dead space and latch onto anything that felt familiar.

_This story about Gaea's army… You warned Reyna?_

_Don't worry. I've choreographed your deaths. You'll love it!_

_I thought I could go anywhere in the Underworld, but I walked right into Gaea's trap._

_Lead them there! Promise me!_

_Because you're my brother, and I love you._

_Why don't you ask the Fury?_

_The River Lethe will solve our problem. Make sure he is fully immersed._

The Lethe! Finally it all made sense—not that Nico would have much time to revel in that. He was running out of air. He could feel his lungs filling with water, his throat constricting in an effort to keep the liquid out. He tried to cough, but only succeeded in swallowing more of it. This water—it was death, in physical form. Peaceful at first, and then cold and unrelenting. It was reaching for him and trying to drag him into a suffocating oblivion. He was dying, getting closer and closer to the hungry void that had stolen his memories away. He could feel it. And there was nothing he could do.

Then suddenly a painful, electric jolt bolted through his chest, like he was being pounded with a defibrillator. His head started to clear. He still couldn't breathe, but his senses sparked with life, which had to be a good sign.

Again he felt a sharp jolt of heat and this time the water was blasted aside by a powerful wind that seemed to come from nowhere. Nico shut his eyes and gritted his teeth until the gale died down unexpectedly and instantaneously, and he sat up straight and took his first heaving breath of actual oxygen in what felt like hours.

It took a long second for him to regain his bearings and realize that he was warm and dry. The pool and the darkness were gone. He was back in the dimly-lit penthouse suite of the Cloud Nine Hotel, surrounded by people—people he _knew_. People he remembered.

"Are you okay?"

Nico blinked and shook the dregs of dizziness from his still-aching head, before twisting sideways to see Hazel—his Roman half-sister, the one he'd pulled from the Fields of Asphodel years ago. How could he have possibly forgotten about her? She was seated on the sofa beside him, leaning close with her golden eyes wide and full of anxious concern. He flashed briefly back to the other day, when he'd run into her, Percy, and Annabeth in the Cherokee Forest. Now he felt kind of stupid for the way he'd acted toward them.

He realized Hazel was still waiting for an answer. "Yeah," he said, his voice hoarse and ragged. Pain flared behind his eyes and he closed them tightly, gripping his temples. "Except for the killer headache."

"Man, don't _do_ that," Percy said in an exhausted sort of way. "We thought you were dead."

Nico clicked his tongue. If there was one person in the world more reckless than him, it was Percy Jackson. And now the idiot wanted to scold Nico for making him worry? That seemed a little backwards. "Like you're one to talk after that stunt you pulled in Greece last summer."

"Yeah, but that was—" Percy started to argue defensively, breaking off after a beat. "Wait a minute—you remember that?"

_Caught on, huh?_ Nico thought wryly as he lifted his head from his hands and put on his default humorless smirk.

Hazel's face broke into an ecstatic grin. "You're back!" she said as all the tension seemed to release from the air at once. She leaned forward and extended her arms seemingly out of reflex, but came to jerky halt and held herself back. She knew Nico wasn't one for physical contact or shows of affection, and he appreciated her thoughtfulness. But he also figured he kind of owed her this one, so with a shrug he shifted sideways and held out his arms in submission, prompting her to laugh and wrap him in a tight hug.

"Thank you, Lord Hypnos," Annabeth addressed the god seated on the coffee table.

"If what you told me about his experiences is true," Hypnos replied, "then we all have something to gain from the return of his memory."

A heavy rock seemed to drop into Nico's stomach. Los Angeles, the Furies, that underground room with its glass pillars and black throne, a blood sacrifice… Something big was about to happen, he could feel it. They'd kept him from warning people for over a week. Was it too late now? Or was there still a chance they could stop whatever the goddess was planning? Either way, everyone had to know.

"You're right," he agreed grimly as Hazel released him, noticing his change in countenance. "The one behind everything—I met her. She did this to me."

"'She' who?" Annabeth asked.

Jaw tightening as the goddess's cold face and white-gold eyes flashed in his mind, Nico looked up and answered, "Nyx. The Queen of Night."

* * *

><p><strong>Woo-hoo! I feel like I've been working on this forever, but it's only been like a week... I guess that is kind of long for a one-shot. But almost 10,000 words came out of it, so that's something.<strong>

**Anyway, I've got one more idea for this that I'm sitting on, to get done as soon as I have time, but after that I'm dry for now. Keep the requests comin' if you got 'em, and I'll keep this in mind as I work on Amber Ashes :D**

**How 'bout a review in the meantime? Thanks, guys! Later days!**

**-oMM**


	4. Chain Link

**Every time I look at the title of this story, I get Dream On in my head…**

**Anyway, I'mma dedicate this one to **_**Winter Chase**_**, who wanted something post-WoS featuring almost everyone's favorite demigod couple. Hope this fits the bill, babe :D**

**So come on down, gang, and get your Percabeth fix right here starting right about… now.**

* * *

><p>"Oh, I'm gonna get him this time…"<p>

Annabeth raised an uncertain eyebrow at Piper, apprehensively eyeing the daughter of Aphrodite's hands as they soundlessly whipped a bottle of hot sauce from somewhere under the table. She poured a very generous amount into what was left of her mango smoothie before tucking the bottle back out of sight, then proceeding to reach across the table and empty the entire contents of the mixture into Leo's half-full coffee mug, carefully replacing the lid once she'd finished.

"Please don't make him actually drink that," Annabeth said in an undertone, her stomach practically turning over just thinking about the concoction.

"I'm just putting it here," Piper said innocently as she leaned back in her chair. "It's his choice whether or not he drinks it."

"That's evil," Jason added with a grimace.

Piper shrugged, suppressing a smile. "Yup. Don't tell him."

Looking doubtful, Jason opened his mouth to respond but thought better of it when Leo returned from his journey of throwing away their trash and dropped back into the seat to Annabeth's right. "Where _are_ those guys?" he said, yanking a watch from his magic tool belt and frowning at it momentarily. "Didn't they say they'd be back by early afternoon?"

"I'm sure they aren't far," Piper replied with a half-shrug and a perfect poker face. "They were near Chicago when they called, right? They probably just… took a break for some sight-seeing."

"Sight-seeing?" Annabeth repeated skeptically. She started to reach for her drink but thought better of it. She wasn't involved in Leo and Piper's ongoing war, technically, but you could never be too careful around them. "Those three? Unlikely. Even if they did run into trouble, though, I doubt it's anything they can't handle. Besides, they'd let us know if there was a problem."

Leo shrugged, swinging the watch around his fingers before stuffing it back in his tool belt. "Yeah. Long as they make it back before tonight. If any of them miss this show, I'm gonna kill 'em." He leaned one arm over the back of his chair and with the other grabbed hold of his coffee mug and removed the lid, and Annabeth could almost feel Piper swell with anticipation beside her.

Making a quick decision, Annabeth leaned forward and blurted, "No, don't—!" but she was half a second too late. Leo froze stock-still with the mug at his mouth, and Piper burst out laughing. Wincing, Annabeth placed a hand over her mouth as Leo lowered the mug and swallowed very slowly with apparent difficulty, a highly confused look on his face.

"What did…?" he muttered to Piper, but he trailed off mid-sentence as his eyes narrowed in thought and he rotated his jaw, tilting his head to the side. "You know, actually…" He glanced down at Piper's concoction and raised his eyebrows, looking mildly impressed. "This is pretty good. You might have something here." Then he actually took another drink of the mix, making Annabeth's stomach flip uncomfortably.

Jason cracked up at the development, but Piper stopped laughing abruptly. "Unbelievable!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up and making a few of the outdoor diner's other patrons look over in interest. "You are _impossible_ to prank."

"Aw, don't give up, McLean," Leo said with a grin. "You'll get better someday. What'd you put in this, anyway?"

"You don't want to know," Annabeth answered, rolling her eyes. As Leo lifted the mug to his mouth again, she reached over and pulled it away. "Stop, you're gonna get yourself sick before the party tonight."

Leo arched an eyebrow, snatching the drink back from her. "When have you ever seen me get sick?"

Annabeth folded her arms, giving up her conquest and leaning back in her chair. He did have a point. Thinking back, viruses that passed around their camp always seemed to skip over him. "What about that time you were bitten by that poisonous ladybug?" she recalled.

That got Piper laughing again. "That doesn't count," Leo said, pointing a finger at Annabeth as his expression momentarily hardened. "You didn't see that thing, it was vicious."

"I _did_ see it," Annabeth pointed out. "It was a ladybug."

"An _evil_ ladybug! What about the time that squirrel got into Jason's cabin and stole his razor? Are we not gonna talk about that?"

Jason's grin vanished. "Hey! You promised you wouldn't tell anyone about that!"

Leo laughed, waving a hand across the table at Jason. "Come on! He gave you the best haircut you've ever had!"

As Jason protested again, Piper leaned closer to Annabeth and whispered, "Promised, huh? Leo told me about that the day after it happened."

Annabeth shook her head and laughed. She was always glad that no matter how much time passed and however old they got, her and her friends' time together was always strangely childish and full of laughter. It was nice—she'd never really gotten a childhood before, what with her having to grow up so quickly as a kid. Better late than never, she supposed.

"Those guys really _had_ better hurry, though," Piper said in a tone a bit more serious a minute later. "The party wouldn't be right without them."

"Yeah," Annabeth agreed with a sigh. She glanced past Leo and Jason and down the street in the direction of the Roman temples that lay just outside the tiny town. "I can't believe it's been two years…" she muttered somewhat abruptly, mind wandering. Today was July 31st, exactly two years since the end of the Shadow War and the full union of the Greek and Roman camps. They were planning a celebration that night, like they'd done the previous year, in commemoration of Camp Lumina's creation—the place that all of them could together call home. In those two short years, so much had been accomplished. Renovations had completed, and even now new structures were still being built. They had cabins and barracks enough for everyone, and even a small street dotted with shops and restaurants much like there'd been in New Rome back at Camp Jupiter. Annabeth didn't live there full-time herself, what with college and everything, but she visited at any opportunity she got. The people who lived here were her family, after all. It was hard for her to stay away.

"I can't believe it's been two years without another war," Piper added wryly.

Annabeth shot her a sideways glance. "Don't jinx us." As Piper gave an admissive smirk, Annabeth felt her cell phone vibrate twice in quick succession in her pocket (she'd long since abandoned the whole 'phones are dangerous for half-bloods' thing; after as many wars as she'd fought in, little things like monsters didn't scare her anymore; most of her friends even felt the same). She pulled it out and pressed the lock button to reveal a text message reading, _Where are you? _She smiled to herself and sent a quick reply, and barely a few seconds later another message told her, _Okay, be there in a few. Gonna lock Nico in his cabin first. Kid's falling asleep on me._

"They're back," she said aloud to the other three, stuffing her phone back in the pocket of her jeans. "They're on their way here."

"Awesome," Leo said with a grin, leaning his chair back and balancing on its rear legs.

Jason gave him a pointed look. "Man, don't go jumping her bones right away, okay? You _are_ in public. I know that doesn't usually matter to you guys, but come on."

"No promises, dude," Leo replied, his grin turning sly. "A month is a _long_ time."

She didn't say it out loud, but Annabeth kind of agreed with Leo. It had been just over a month since Percy, Reyna, and Nico had undertaken a long-term recon quest at the behest of Nico's father—something about an escaped group of spirits that Hades feared was plotting some kind of uprising. It was mainly surveillance, follow them for a few weeks and spy on their actions, only interfering if absolutely necessary. From the few times they'd contacted Camp Lumina, they hadn't run into many complications, so Annabeth hadn't been particularly worried per se. But that wasn't to say she didn't miss her best friend. They'd always been together during summers past. It just felt weird for things to be different.

But according to Percy's message, that time was thankfully at an end, and Annabeth was having a hard time keeping the smile from her face.

"Speak of the devil," Piper said, looking up with a grin just as Reyna stepped through a small crowd of passersby and approached their table.

"Hey, guys," she said with a smile as she lightly pushed the back of Leo's shoulders, knocking his chair back to all four legs. He looked around as she leaned down and slid her arms around his neck from behind.

"Hey," he greeted her, grin widening. "Let me guess—the trip was totally lame and you're never leaving camp again."

Reyna chuckled. "Something like that." She shifted sideways and kissed him (in a way that made it seem like they'd been separated for a lot longer than a month), which surprised no one at the table. As Jason had mentioned, Leo and Reyna were highly unconcerned with the whole 'public display of affection' thing.

"And there they go," Jason muttered, rolling his eyes.

"You know, we could play that game, too," Piper suggested with an innocent tilt of her head, fingers toying with the straw from her empty smoothie.

Jason gave her a nervous smile. "How about later?" he suggested, to which Piper looked at Annabeth with a half-shrug that clearly stated _Well, I tried._ Annabeth suppressed a light laugh. She knew Piper had long since been trying to get Jason to actually take a page from Leo's book and loosen up a little about certain things, but despite her natural charm she hadn't garnered much success. According to Piper, he was all for it when they were alone. But around others, well… different story.

"Wonder where the others are," Jason said aimlessly to cover a few seconds of awkward silence. He craned his neck to see past Leo and Reyna down the street, then gave up and once again averted his gaze. Piper smiled and shook her head at Annabeth, reaching out to pat her boyfriend on the knee.

"What were you drinking?" Reyna asked with an interested frown as she and Leo separated. She glanced at his coffee mug and slid her tongue along the inside of her cheek. "I like it."

"Ha! Told you!" Leo shouted at the others, pointing at Piper with a grin. He picked up the mug and held it out to his girlfriend. "Here, want some?"

"Don't you dare," Annabeth interrupted, leaping forward and yanking the drink from Leo's hand before Reyna could take it. "We are not making a habit out of this." Leo laughed and shook his head, but to Annabeth's relief he didn't make another grab for the potentially-toxic drink mixture. She took the opportunity then to ask Reyna, "Where's Percy?"

"On his way," the Roman praetor answered, standing up straight and leaning against Leo's chair as he slid an arm around her hips. "He wanted to make sure Nico was taken care of. All the shadow-travel really wore him out, but he still insisted on getting us home before tonight. He pretty much collapsed when we got here."

"Is he okay?" Piper asked with a frown.

Reyna nodded reassuringly. "He'll be fine. He's just exhausted." She looked at the sky—a habit Annabeth had realized meant she was gauging the time by the position of the sun. "I should go get unpacked. Got a bit to do before the feast later."

"Need any help?" Leo asked her.

One of her hands crept from his shoulder to slide under the collar of his shirt. "I'll need help with _something_," she said, lips twitching in a tiny smirk.

Leo grinned. "I'm there." He stood up, taking Reyna's hand as she waved to the others and led the way to the road. He turned and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Jason, undoubtedly in an attempt to make his friend uncomfortable.

It worked. Jason rolled his eyes and said dully, "Later, Leo."

Leo called back, "Much later!" before he and Reyna disappeared from view.

Annabeth exchanged an amused glance with Piper, but faltered when a voice behind her said wryly, "That was fast." The wide smile was back on her face before she'd fully turned around and laid eyes on her boyfriend, who was standing beside their table and looking ruefully toward the direction in which Leo and Reyna had just gone.

"Welcome back!" Annabeth said brightly, prompting Percy to turn and grin at her. She stood up and pulled him immediately into a tight hug, happy to feel his arms encircle her back and hear his light laugh in her ear.

"Miss me?" he asked rhetorically as she loosened her hold and backed up.

"So how'd it go?" Jason asked with a nod. "Reyna wasn't in a very informative mood."

"Pretty well," Percy replied, dropping into Leo's vacated seat as Annabeth reclaimed hers. "We met with Hades this morning to go over what we got. He seemed pretty confident he could stamp the rebellion out before it goes anywhere, so I guess that's mission accomplished. We had a few odd monster encounters along the way, but when don't we these days? Hey, you gonna finish that?"

Annabeth jumped when she realized he was indicating the coffee mug she'd confiscated from Leo. "It's empty," she said hurriedly, pushing it out of his reach. He shrugged in response.

"Well, I'm sure Leo and Reyna aren't the only ones with some catching up to do," Piper said with a grin, eyes shifting between Percy and Annabeth. "Come on, Jason. Let's go find Frank and Hazel and firm up plans for tonight."

"Yeah, yeah," Jason agreed, allowing Piper to pull him to his feet. "We'll see you guys later."

Once they were out of sight, Annabeth turned to Percy and smiled, making a mental note to thank Piper later. "I did miss you," she answered his rhetorical question, sliding to the edge of her seat.

He smiled back, the simple expression alone making excited butterflies flutter in her stomach. "I missed you, too," he said, before leaning forward to gently press his lips to hers. One of his hands loosely trailed the side of her face, pushing a curl of hair behind her ear, as the other wrapped around her own hands in her lap. She leaned toward him, letting the euphoric feel of having him so close to her make her light-headed and giddy. It was a little strange, logically—it had only been a month since she'd last seen him, but for whatever reason it felt like so much longer. It was like the more time they spent together, the less time she wanted to spend apart.

When he pulled away, she studied his green eyes, calmly and intently fixed on her own. She loved how they always expressed what he was thinking and feeling—the windows to his soul, as the saying went. She could clearly see the love in them whenever he looked at her, and it filled her with such a sense of worth and contentment that sometimes she found herself never wanting to look away.

"Want to go for a walk?" he asked after a long few seconds.

Annabeth smiled. She'd been about to suggest the same thing herself. "Sure."

-0-0-0-

As they strode aimlessly across the camp, Percy gave Annabeth a more detailed account of his trip, ending with Nico's insistence that they make it back to Long Island before the anniversary celebration that night. The subject of the party brought on talk of the way things had changed so much in recent years, compared with the camp they'd both been become a part of so long ago. Annabeth always found it strange, comparing her life now to her life back then. It was hardly the same at all, with Camp Half-Blood no longer existing and her daily life now including their Roman allies she hadn't even known existed. The one, important thing that was able to tie both worlds together was Percy. He, at least, had always been there—he, if nothing else, was constant. That thought was comforting enough to allay any anxiety over change.

Somehow, without Annabeth's realizing it, they'd ended up at the amphitheater. Ever since the Battle of the Black Moon exactly two years prior, she'd adamantly avoided visiting this place unless it was with a large group of people for a planned event. It had a way of bringing back flashing memories of that night—memories she never wanted to revisit.

She wasn't the only one who felt that way, if the suddenly hard look on Percy's face was any indication. They stopped at the top of the stairs and he stared down into the theater, his grip on her hand tightening unconsciously.

"This is where we fought Erebos two years ago," he said quietly, a small, hidden sharpness in his voice.

Annabeth placed her other hand on his arm in an attempt to offer them both some form of stability. "This is where we _beat_ Erebos two years ago," she said firmly.

Percy blinked and turned to look at her, a small, somewhat sad smile appearing on his face. "I still think about that sometimes," he admitted. "You know… What we had to do."

Annabeth swallowed, feeling her throat tighten uncomfortably. "…So do I."

He cringed as though he'd been poked with a sharp needle, his gaze sliding over her expression. "You know I'm sorry, right?"

She closed her eyes and breathed out slowly, forcing her body to relax. She hated remembering what had happened there two years ago—they'd won the war, yes, and everything had worked out in the end. But what he'd asked her to do… What she'd _agreed_ to do… Nothing had ever felt so awful in her life. And more than that, she knew nothing ever would again. She was beyond glad that things hadn't ended that way, but no matter what happened after, killing the person you loved most wasn't something you could easily move on from.

But at the same time, she knew it wasn't his fault. He wasn't the one who'd decided his death would defeat Erebos. All he did was understand a truth that was already real. He'd asked for her help—for what they both thought would be the last time—and how could she say no? She didn't blame him. She _couldn't_ blame him. And she wished he would stop blaming himself.

"Yes, I know," Annabeth said patiently, glad that her voice had released most of its tension. "I also know you don't have to be." With a sigh, she gripped Percy's hand and stepped down the first few steps, pulling him into the topmost stand to her right and sitting down on the bench. She angled her body toward him and met his gaze steadily, willing him to read her emotions through her eyes like she often did with him. "I won't say it's okay," she went on, "because, as you can probably image, it wasn't. But that whole thing—it wasn't on you. You didn't cast that spell. You didn't bind yourself to Erebos. What we had to do… It was his and Nyx's fault, and no one else's." She shook her head, forcing a smile. "And besides, it all worked out, didn't it? They're gone, and we're still here."

He cracked a return smile. "Yeah, I guess so. But still, it wasn't fair of me to ask you to do something I would never have been able to do. Something so… hard."

Annabeth's consciousness flashed back to that moment and she suppressed a shiver, reflexively leaning closer to Percy as though reassuring herself that he was really there, that she hadn't just imagined him waking up that night and everything that had happened after was nothing but a dream. "Yeah… It was hard. Like you said, it was… the hardest thing you could ever ask me to do."

Percy nodded numbly, staring at the bench in front of them. "And the most important."

"That's just it, though," Annabeth decided as her memory continued to relive the past two years. "What we did was important—_so_ important. I mean, look what came out of it. Look at this place, at the people who live here. This… peace, I guess you could call it…" They both chuckled wryly—of course their lives weren't the dictionary definition of 'peaceful', but what they and the Romans had now was the closest they'd ever gotten to it. "It's because of that night. It never would've been possible otherwise."

Percy smiled again, his gaze seeming to soften. "You're right. We do make a pretty good team, huh?"

Annabeth bumped her shoulder against his arm, recalling a similar conversation they'd had before. "The best." He squeezed her hand in response, but she noticed his smile fade, some sort of confliction in his eyes. It pulled a painful string in her heart somehow. She hadn't seen him in weeks. All she wanted for the time being was for the two of them to be together and happy. "What's up?" she asked, leaning around him to try and get a better look at his expression.

He turned to look at her, seeming to hesitate for an instant before saying carefully, "I was wrong, you know."

Annabeth frowned. "About what?"

Percy worked his jaw back and forth, looking thoughtful. "There _is_ something more important… that I want you to do for me." He gave a wry, pained sort of half-smile. "It might even be harder."

Harder than her having to kill him? Annabeth felt her lungs constrict in her chest. She was afraid of where he was going with this. What could he possibly ask of her that could be harder and more important than what they'd already had to do? Almost not wanting an answer, she asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Being gone this past month," he explained, still staring at the bench below theirs, "you know, separated from you, it… made me realize something. We've always done everything together, I kind of forgot what it was like when you weren't there. It was weird, just sort of… not worrying about you. Like, knowing you were safe back here and not out there watching my back."

Somehow Annabeth was having a hard time breathing properly. She couldn't read Percy's face or his tone of voice, and it was scaring her. What did he mean? Was he going to ask her not to go with him on quests anymore? Did he want her to stay out of harm's way forever? Was he tired of worrying all the time? Was he… was he trying to break up with her?

"I don't want to do it anymore," he went on, not seeming to notice his girlfriend turning so tense she felt like a stone gargoyle. "I can't. And there's kind of only one thing I can think to do that'll make it better. I know it's not gonna be easy, but…" He breathed out shortly, stretching and contracting his fingers restlessly. Finally he raised his gaze and looked Annabeth in the eye, a resigned sort of acceptance in his expression. "Annabeth… I want you to…"

Annabeth felt an angry flush creep up her neck. How could he spring this on her all of a sudden? It wasn't _her_ fault he spent so much time worrying about her. That was just their life! They'd made it work before, and they could make it work again. There was no way she was just going to sit there and let him decide to run their relationship into the ground.

A glare on her face, she said in a brittle voice, "Percy Jackson, if this is another half-baked hero act, I swear to all the gods I'll—"

"Marry me."

Annabeth's threat died on her tongue. Her frustration swept out of her like the tide, leaving only a blank sense of shock. For possibly the first time ever, her thoughts seemed to completely shut down. All she could force from her open mouth was a weak, "…What?"

"I know it's probably stupid," Percy went on, shaking his head, "but I just… don't want to be away from you like that again. It was only a month, but… I don't know, it just felt like a lot longer. It's always been you and me. I can't take the thought of it just being… me, you know? Besides, who the heck knows how much time people like us even have? I think we gotta make the most of life each day at a time. And I want every day to be with you just 'cause… well, you never know when one day's gonna be your last. I mean, I already died once, didn't I? Kind of puts things in perspective."

Annabeth still couldn't straighten out her own mind. She'd been wrong—_very_ wrong. Her boyfriend didn't want to be away from her. Far from it—he never wanted to be away from her again. How did she misinterpret this so completely?

"Look," he said when she remained quiet and still. He twisted sideways on the bench and wrapped both his hands around hers, eyes fixed on her face. "I love you. You know I do. I know this won't be easy, but… since when is anything we ever do easy? I realized this past month that it doesn't matter where we have to go or what battles we have to fight. All that matters to me is that we do it together. Life like ours, we have to figure out what's important and stay focused on just that. And for me, that's you. You're my light, Annabeth, remember?" A rueful smile loosened his expression, his sea-green eyes seeming to brighten as though reflecting the light he was talking about.

For a long few seconds, Annabeth still wasn't able to respond. Percy wanted to marry her. He wanted to get _married_. She was surprised, to say the least—but then, as his words started to sink in, the surprise ebbed. What was so surprising, really? She'd always known that the two of them were soul mates, meant to be together for the rest of their lives. And she was twenty years old now. It wasn't strange for her to be thinking about marriage. They'd been together for years—for what felt like forever. Why not take the next step?

She'd thought it herself earlier—so many things in her life had changed over the years, but Percy was the one thing that had always been there. He was the one she could always count on, could always believe in. He said she was his light, but to her that went both ways. He grounded her, kept her sane and happy. Because of him, she could accept the tragedy and the change that kept happening around her. As long as he was there, she could take on anything. And, like him, that was a feeling she didn't ever want to let go of.

"Annabeth?" Percy said after a heavy silence. His eyebrows drew together uncertainly. "You… gonna say anything?"

Annabeth shook her head—there was nothing for her to say. She felt her lips break in an unconscious smile, a light giddiness more pleasant than anything she'd felt in a long time slowly blanketing her senses. She pulled her hands free from Percy's and he'd barely glanced down and frowned before her arms were around his neck and she'd tugged him forward, snatching his mouth in her own. She let that happiness bleed out through her skin, her tongue communicating in a way that speech couldn't accurately convey. She could acutely feel the longing with which he responded, sense how much he'd missed her—how much he loved her—and it only intensified her own emotions. He was right—they needed this. They needed each other, to stay by one another for whatever time they had left. This really was the most important thing of all.

Annabeth was breathing heavily when she finally broke away, placing her hands on Percy's face and staring transfixed at his eyes. She noticed she was still grinning like an idiot, but at the moment she didn't mind. She couldn't have stopped if she'd wanted to.

"So, uh…" Percy said a bit dazedly, "is that a yes?"

Annabeth laughed. "I'm surprised you even need to ask."

He grinned, making her heart leap in her chest. He leaned forward to give her another brief kiss before pulling back to say, "I don't really have a ring or anything yet… This wasn't exactly planned out."

Shaking her head, she insisted, "It's okay. You know I don't need that." Somehow, she wasn't surprised—or disappointed, for that matter. Percy was kind of a spur-of-the-moment guy. He wasn't the type for long, careful planning. It wouldn't have been the same if he'd done it any other way, and for that Annabeth was happier than he'd ever realize. This may not have seemed like much to him, but she would remember it forever.

"We should probably get back soon," he suggested, glancing over her shoulder. "I already missed most of the pre-party work. I gotta help out a little, at least."

"Not just yet," she argued. She slid her arms back around his neck to keep him from drawing away from her, glad when his grip on her waist tightened in kind. "I haven't seen my fiancé in over four weeks. He owes me some serious quality time, and I fully intent to make him pay up."

He grinned in amusement, gaze drifting down to her lips. "I like the way you think."

With a light smirk, she whispered, "I know you do," before resealing the shrinking gap between them.

Maybe he was right, and they did have a responsibility to the camp. But first and foremost, they had a responsibility to each other—to the bond that existed strong and unbreakable, welding their two lives into one like strands of DNA, or links in an iron chain. However cheesy it may have sounded, they were part of each other. Annabeth and Percy belonged together, for now and forever. For better or worse. In war and in peace. In sickness and in health.

And not even death—her first, his second, or an end they shared together—would break them apart.

* * *

><p><strong>Fun fact, this scene was actually part of my original series outline. I was planning to have it as a kind of epilogue at the end of War of Shadows, but I decided to cut it because I liked the tone I finished up with. Kind of nice I ended up getting a chance to write it and share it with you guys after all :D<strong>

**Okay, I have one more idea that I can hopefully get up soon. As always, if you've got something you'd like to see, please let me know! Doing requests is actually a ton of fun, haha. Sometimes you guys think of really awesome ideas that never would have come to me on my own.**

**Review for me? Please? Thanks, everybody! Later days!**

**-oMM**


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